2009-10 Topps Chrome Stephen Curry #101 RC /999

A chrome set hidden inside a flagship

In 2009-10 Topps did not release Chrome basketball as its own product. Instead, Chrome cards were inserted into the flagship Topps set, arriving at a rate of nine per hobby box. A hobby box held 36 packs of 10 cards each.

That change made the Chrome cards scarce. All 110 cards in the Chrome set were serial-numbered to 999, with Refractors numbered to 500, Gold Refractors to 50 and one-of-one Superfractors. Blake Griffin, James Harden and Stephen Curry were the rookies of note.

Curry's card is #101. It shows the former Davidson star smiling in a white Warriors warm-up, the stamped serial number marking which of the 999 copies it is.

The end of an era for Topps

The 2009-10 season was the last in which Topps produced NBA-licensed basketball cards for a long time. After 2009, Panini held exclusive NBA rights, and its Prizm, Select and National Treasures lines shaped the next generation of the hobby. Topps kept making basketball cards in later years, but without official team logos and marks.

That gap lasted 16 years. Topps, now part of a larger sports collectibles company, officially regained the NBA license on October 1, 2025, and its first licensed NBA cards since 2009-10 went on sale on October 23. The return was framed explicitly around this card: the first licensed Topps NBA cards since 'the iconic Stephen Curry rookie.'

The Upper Deck side of the market was changing too. The 2009-10 season also brought the final edition of Upper Deck's Exquisite Collection basketball, which sold out in a matter of hours.

The seventh pick

Stephen Curry was born March 14, 1988, in Akron, Ohio, the same city as LeBron James, and grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his father, Dell Curry, played most of his NBA career. At Davidson he set the NCAA single-season record for three-pointers with 162 as a sophomore and led Division I in scoring as a junior.

The 2009 draft was held on June 25, his father's 45th birthday. Dell, who hoped his son would go eighth to the New York Knicks, called teams ahead of them and urged them to pass. Minnesota did, taking two other point guards at fifth and sixth. Warriors coach Don Nelson took Curry seventh anyway, one pick before the Knicks.

As a rookie Curry played 80 games and averaged 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.9 steals, shooting 43.7 percent from three. He scored 30 or more eight times, the most by any rookie that season, and finished with 166 three-pointers, then the most ever by a rookie. In the season finale, with the Warriors so short-handed they had to dress injured players, he put up 42 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Tyreke Evans and was a unanimous All-Rookie First Team pick.

The shooter who changed the game

Curry won his first MVP and his first championship in 2014-15. The next season he became the first unanimous MVP in league history, led the league in scoring while shooting better than 50-40-90 and made 402 three-pointers, breaking his own single-season record. He went on to win four championships (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022), the 2022 Finals MVP and two scoring titles.

On December 14, 2021, at Madison Square Garden, he made his 2,974th career three-pointer and passed Ray Allen as the NBA's all-time leader. He holds the highest career free-throw percentage in NBA history, .912, and has led the league in three-pointers made a record eight times.

Tracking the 999

Because each copy is numbered, individual cards can be followed through the market. Copy #724/999, graded PSA 10, sold at auction for $13,000 in June 2024, then for $29,600 in November 2025 and $37,600 in March 2026. Copy #655/999 went from $18,589 in October 2023 to $39,725.85 in October 2025. PSA has graded 61 copies a 10.

The PSA 10 market peaked early in the 2021 boom, when one copy sold for $85,000 in February 2021. Prices then fell back: sales from 2022 through 2024 ranged from $12,800 to $31,200. They climbed again from late 2025 into 2026, reaching $36,100 in May, $62,000 in early August and $60,100 at the end of August.

When identifying the card, check three things: the #101 card number, a serial number out of 999 and no Refractor designation on the label. A serial out of 500 marks the Refractor and out of 50 the Gold Refractor, both distinct cards.

The numbers

2009-10 season (rookie)

80 G, 77 GS, 36.2 MPG, 17.5 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 5.9 APG, 1.9 SPG, .462 FG%, .437 3P%, .885 FT%. 1,399 points, 166 three-pointers. 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting; All-Rookie First Team.

2015-16 season

79 G, 30.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 6.7 APG, 2.1 SPG, .504 FG%, .454 3P%, .908 FT%, 402 three-pointers. Unanimous MVP.

Career regular season (17 seasons)

1,069 G, 24.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 6.3 APG, .471 FG%, .422 3P%, .912 FT%

Career playoffs

155 G, 26.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 6.1 APG

Honors

4 NBA titles, 2022 Finals MVP, 2 MVPs (2015, 2016), 12 All-Star selections, 2 scoring titles, NBA career three-point leader

Timeline

1. Mar 14, 1988

   Stephen Curry is born in Akron, Ohio.

2. 2008

   Curry sets the NCAA single-season record with 162 three-pointers as a Davidson sophomore.

3. Jun 25, 2009

   Golden State drafts Curry seventh overall on his father's 45th birthday.

4. 2010

   Curry finishes his rookie season with 166 three-pointers, then a rookie record, and is runner-up for Rookie of the Year.

5. 2015

   Curry wins his first MVP and first championship.

6. 2016

   Curry becomes the first unanimous MVP after making 402 three-pointers.

7. Feb 22, 2021

   A PSA 10 copy of the card sells for $85,000.

8. Dec 14, 2021

   Curry passes Ray Allen as the NBA's career leader in three-pointers.

9. 2022

   Curry wins his fourth title and the Finals MVP.

10. Jun 9, 2024

    PSA 10 copy #724/999 sells at auction for $13,000.

11. Oct 1, 2025

    Topps regains the NBA license after 16 years.

12. Mar 23, 2026

    Copy #724/999 sells again, for $37,600.

13. Aug 2, 2026

    A PSA 10 copy sells for $62,000.

The world in 2009

• Jan 15, 2009

  US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River; all 155 aboard survive.

• Jan 20, 2009

  Barack Obama is inaugurated as president.

• Feb 17, 2009

  Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act amid the Great Recession.

• Jun 25, 2009

  Michael Jackson dies, on the same day as the NBA draft.

• Aug 8, 2009

  Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Hispanic justice of the Supreme Court.

• Oct 9, 2009

  Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Dec 18, 2009

  James Cameron's Avatar opens in theaters.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 2009-10 Topps Chrome Stephen Curry #101 RC /999 is number 28 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (46 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Every card in the 2009-10 Topps Chrome set, not only the rookies, is serial-numbered to 999.
• Curry's father called teams ahead of the Knicks on draft night and asked them not to take his son; the Warriors ignored him.
• Curry was drafted on June 25, 2009, his father's 45th birthday and the day Michael Jackson died.
• Curry and LeBron James were both born in Akron, Ohio.
• Copy #724/999 sold for $13,000 in June 2024 and for $37,600 less than two years later.
• When Topps returned to licensed NBA cards in 2025, it was the first time since this card's season, a gap of 16 years.
• Curry's 166 three-pointers as a rookie were then the most ever by a first-year player.